Lamar University Faculty Senate Meeting
Wednesday, November 03, 2021, 3:30PM
Spindletop Room, Library 8th floor
Faculty Senate Agenda
Call to Order, Roll Call (Sign In) began late due to technical difficulties – 3:40 PM – Secretary announced link to sign-in.
Members present per sign-in:
Thinesh Selvaratnam
Civil and Environmental
Engineering/ College of
Engineering
Garrick Harden Soci, SW, & CJ
Edgardo Pujols
Earth and Space
Sciences
Pat Heintzelman
English and Modern
Language
Melissa Riley Mathematics/ COAS
Cristina Ríos Education
Ruhai Wag
Electrical Engineering,
College of Engineering
Vince Nix
Educational Leadership
Doctorate / Education
and Human
Development
Eunjin Kwon NHHS/Education
Cheng-Hsien Lin
Sociology, Social Work,
and Criminal Justice
Cynthia Cummings
Department of
Educational Leadership
Travis Prokop Theatre & Dance
Cengiz Sen Physics/A&S
Brendan Gillis History - COAS
Alan Brincks
Department of Theatre
and Dance
m. hamza counseling
Sujing wang Computer science
Travis Prokop Theatre & Dance
John Gossage Chemical Engineering
Christopher Martin
Chemistry &
Biochemistry
Kelly Brown
Center for Doctoral
Studies/College of
Education
VivekShankar Natarajan
Business/ College of
Business
CHUN-WEI YAO Mechanical Engineering
Kelli White Nursing
J.P. Nelson Political Science
Wen Liu Mathematics
Yueqing Li
Industrial and Systems
Engineering/College of
Engineering
Raymond Doe Psychology
Trina Nolen Library
Matthew P Hoch COAS/Microbiology
Serdar Nick Ilban COFAC/Music
Jennifer Fowler Arts and Sciences
Clayton Jeffryes Engineering
Ashley Dockens
Xenia Fedorchenko
Cristina Rios
SPHS
Art
Education
President Taylor’s Minute:
• Cardinal Boo was a success
• Cardinal Lights being paid for by a donor, occurring on Dec. 2 – there will be red and white lighting all around the
campus
• Provost: The President’s Investiture is next Thursday, Nov. 11 at 1:30 pm – thankful for the faculty who are
coming and have signed up to attend; Please support Homecoming – there will be prizes for tailgate awards -
food, fans, tailgating, Spindletop antique car show, shuttle running between Spindletop, Library, parking lots,
and fan areas; come and please advert the event
• Question to Provost – what is the status of the ARC meeting? Some issues since COB didn’t have some
membership and caused some issues with voting – closes this Friday; COAS had some issues with voting as well –
closes on Nov. 10 – will update again after completed
• Question to Provost – what is the status of the ombudsman? Ombudsman chaired by Associate Provost, VP of
Faculty senate was a member, but one chair asked to be excused – working on questions to be finalized with HR
and approved – asked to develop some scenarios that the person may run into and someone would need to
assist with – hope is that it would be done before Christmas break and have the person start January –
Statement from floor: would like to see greater shared governance on this – Provost: this is meant to be a
neutral person – hoping that faculty will be given an opportunity to participate
• Question to Provost from Academic Issues committee: Time between classes has changed from 15 minutes to 10
minutes – is this staying and does LU get money from this? Yes, we will and partly because HEAF money is
figured by space utilization so we will stay to 10 minutes
Approval of Minutes – October 2021
• James Slaydon motion; Stephan Malick – second; passed – some to send in attendance for secretary to update
to major changes (Note from secretary: updated Pat Heintzelman and Clayton Jeffryes as present at October
meeting).
Guest Speakers
• Liv Hasselbach - Director of the Center for Resiliency – see presentation attached.
• Ashley Dockens - Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning Enhancement - see presentation attached –
requests that faculty please answer and share survey (https://forms.office.com/r/C44SEFfxiZ)
Faculty Senate Committee Chair Reports
Academic Issues Committee – Melissa Riley - Oct. 20 virtual meeting – further discussion about software and options
Faculty Issues Committee – Sujing Wang – Oct. 20 via teams
• Piper award closed – making recs to provost for notification – deadline Nov. 19
• discussed grievance policy – and will review next meeting; note from floor (Slaydon) – talk with joe and
chancellors – looking into if tsus can have a general grievance policy
o VP Cheng-Hsien was in attendance for that meeting, noted “Going to ask Dr. Hyak about it but no
response yet.”
Budget and Compensation Committee – Garrick Harden
- Met in October – put in request for more info and got a response from Cynthia Dean, that info request will cost
approx. $815 to get – salaries and F2.08 from 2013 to 2020 for all at LU – can the FS pay for that out of the
budget – also want CUPA data and get an account so we can access that data at any time – longer you work at
LU, the less you get paid – people get hired at market price and are making more than people working here for a
decade or more – increasing equity by seniority of time
- From floor (Slaydon): Jeremy, Brenda, Jaime – about equity – have $150,000 across campus; need to find which
cohort to begin with as a group
- From floor (Matt Hoch): who will be first targeted? Slaydon: those hired before 2003 had part of equity before
with Simmons; MH: might look at comparables in cohorts – what is faculty output? Or? How will we weight it?
Are we considering performance; Slaydon: upper admin is resistant to us doing the digging into this and are
trying to put it under HR
- From floor (JP Nelson) – focusing on absolute deprivation folks first because even small amounts will make
biggest changes
- GH: requested f208s – Provost suggested that faculty stop producing after tenure and promotion – so Harden
wanted us to evaluate and see if tenured professors are doing “less”
- From floor (M Hoch): what about the non-money assets that those in the last 8 or so years to put them on a fast
track to tenure and promotion and to full professor – can we have the same assets be put to tenured faculty to
assist on this – what equity can be had here? – is there balance, process, or transparency on how people are
getting support for research and etc. – is our promotion money amounts standard or created?
- From floor (K Weeks): get us up to CUPA in so many years (attorney general might could get fees for request
reduced or removed)
Events – Dorothy Sisk
• No updates
Research and Creative Activity – John Gossage
- Only one person has applied for Faculty Development Leave
- No active meeting for October
- Competition Space is up for FDL, click on link to apply
- Send email to President Fowler to send direct to faculty from Faculty Senate
Faculty Evaluation – Carmen Doering
Student Success – Pat Heintzelman
- Covid Committee: TSUS said they had no issues with mandatory testing for students and faculty – tabled this
motion to Spring; closed the kiosk next to Montagne – student center will test students still but not faculty –
ADAs will continue and will be carried over to Spring – will not meet until Spring
- Student Success: Reviewed institutional research info and will make recommendations to administration after
they have fully reviewed; Complaint issues with HR – complaints languishing – info request on 6 months or older
complaints – can ask for copies of complaints – filed public info request for complaints and HR should be sending
them – how many are sitting there not being addressed?
- TFA – 4 faculty at Univ of FL have been barred in testifying against the state (e.g., pediatrician on efficacy barred)
– many groups have weighed in on this – (1997 - State of TX and TX A&M Corpus Christi in the past were barred
from testifying in the tobacco cases) – has been upheld – what were the policies in TX about whether you can
serve as an expert witness against the state?
Faculty Handbook – Matt Hoch
- Did not have a formal meeting in October – homework assignment for our committee to go through draft
posted for review
- Nov. 16 at 4 PM is a meeting of the FSHC and UHC to discuss comments on lasted handbook edits posted for
review
- MAPP committee should be doing some of this but hasn’t met in a year
- May need a replacement for LeAnn Chisholm while on leave
VP Lin – TSUSCFS
• What is the role of a President on a campus? the values and culture they bring is important to a university;
• Many universities have complained about administration overreaching faculty control and restraining academic
freedom
• Many universities are working on workload policies – UT Dallas just updated policy on workload on their website
• Communication between admin and faculty is poor at universities in TX
• UH Victoria and UH Downtown are undergoing equity distributions
• Might consider inviting the president of UH Victoria to speak about equity and faculty friendly support;
• Curriculum decisions should remain with faculty – more and more regulations are coming about how to
standardize
• Asked academic issues to look into distance education policies;
• COVID issues have calmed and most are looking to stay full open by Fall 2022;
• Merit issues were also discussed;
• Discussed non-tenure faculty promotion (labeled differently: contingent or professional) – does non-tenured
faculty hurt long-term vision of a university
Faculty Senate President’s Report
• FS Exec office open house went well
• FS has been asked to take a strong stand for returning to campus
• Wilma Jackson (diversity and inclusive excellence) 8-10 AM coffee and pastries for First Gen events
• Question from floor (K Weeks) – Is this the President’s report you’re speaking to? Any update or info about
Provost denying 8-9 persons tenure?
o President Fowler – 2 denied, 1 appealed and turned over
o KW recommends to check again – appeals committee for promotion or tenure heard 8 appeals and that
all were overturned (Provost overturned)
Old Business
• Stephan Malik (Dept of Comm) – Point of Info – who updates the FS minutes on CMS – Secretary does and
Christy Swanson approves – Secretary to check on the university one – President Fowler to add sections to the
website or Blackboard organization about points of action
New Business
Kelly Weeks – Can we have a discussion about whether we need to have 2 meetings per month since our meetings are
running so long?
- One motion – faculty senate should ask President Taylor to have a question and answer town hall for an hour
with Faculty Senate – open meeting that faculty are alerted to
o President Fowler doesn’t think it needs to be a motion – she will just simply request – FS should prep
questions
- Resolution – The FS has become aware of FH… (5.2) "The faculty senate has become aware of violations of the
faculty handbooks grievance policy. Specifically, Section 5.2.1. thus, we ask you, the President of LU, to begin
assigning hearing officers and making the end determinations on grievances. We also request during your tenure at LU,
this semester, any grievances improperly heard be re-heard."
o Everything goes to the “blackhole office of the Provost” where “things go in but do not come out”
o KW makes a motion, seconded – Majority passes resolution – President Fowler to send that out
- VP CHL - Ombudsman has 4 candidates – one disqualified due to non faculty status – all current or former
faculty senate members – rec committee by Nov.
o KW Faculty issues committee has done a lot of work that is not being utilized by the Provost
o Recommends the president should be the one to make the decision; questions if should make a motion
that this person be selected by the president
o VP CHL – President should make the decision but provost have input
o VP CHL – will report more in December
o Note from floor (J Slaydon) – believe the course release of only 1 class is an issue
Adjourn at 5:29 PM
Motion to adjourn by James Slaydon, seconded – passed - ended at 5:29 pm